My client’s mother asked me to share her daughter’s story, hoping it will help others.
Hannah is a 15-year-old girl. She was referred to me by her mother following the discovery of 4 suicide letters and over 12 months of self-harming. Hannah was hospitalised and came under the care of a Psychiatrist and Psychologist. For her to return to boarding school in Sydney, she needed to demonstrate she had a self-management tool for her anxiety, and that’s when I met the passionate and skeptical Hannah.
I saw Hannah for only 3 sessions. We quickly established Hannah’s core belief of “I’m not good enough”, putting a lot of pressure on herself to always be better and to fit in. Initially we focused on her relationship with her estranged Dad. As a child Hannah experienced emotional and sometimes physical abuse. She rated her anger with her father a 7/10 and felt a very heavy heart. Through tapping this anger and physical symptom quickly dissolved, to open the way for sadness 8/10, for not having the loving father she’d longed for. With a few more rounds of tapping, this sadness became a 0/10. Although still feeling skeptical about EFT, Hannah was left with hope that perhaps one day she could establish a healthy relationship with her Dad.
The 2nd session focused on Hannah’s relationship with her mother. They would often fight and Hannah found their relationship very stressful 10/10 and would be frustrated by her mother’s over-reactions 7/10. Tapping gave Hannah insight into how her words and actions following her suicide letters has created a very stressed-out and protective mother. Hannah realised her Mother was coming from a place of fear and love. “I have a lot more compassion for Mum now”. With tapping her anger and frustration disappeared. Hannah asked me where I kept my magic wand. She was in disbelief as to how fast her emotions were changing and evolving. In the days following, her mother reported how calm Hannah was at home and their fighting had decreased significantly.
In the 3rd session, we worked on Hannah’s cutting plus learning the EFT recipe for self-tapping. “It’s easier to feel physical pain rather than emotional pain”. Hannah expressed her sadness 8/10 when thinking about her cutting. With Hannah’s new knowledge of the self-tapping recipe, she led the tapping session and her sadness quickly was replaced with relief that she no longer feels the need to cut and also pride in herself that she has the strength to leave this in her past.
The following day, I received a message from Hannah’s Mum. “We are grateful to you. I myself am in tears, as I think you may have saved my baby girl’s life.”